1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device with keys, a control method thereof, and a storage medium, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus, a control method thereof, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
The image forming apparatus includes an operation panel, and the operation panel has an operation unit body, and a cover openably and closably attached to the operation unit body through a hinge. The cover covers a one-touch key group disposed on an exterior of the operation unit body and has another one-touch key group disposed on an outer surface thereof. The one-touch key group includes a numeric keypad, cursor keys, facsimile transmission function keys, copy function keys, one-touch keys, and the like. The operation panel further includes a cover opening-closing sensor that senses opening-closing of the cover.
There is a known technique in which different processes are dynamically allocated to at least one key of the key group according to opening-closing of the cover in the operation panel (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-320550, for example).
There is also a technique in which generating a service error inhibits an image forming apparatus to be used when a sensing result of the cover opening-closing sensor is not normal, e.g., when the cover or the cover opening-closing sensor fails to operate properly. The limitation of the use of the image forming apparatus prevents the image processing apparatus from executing a process not intended by the user, such as wrong fax transmission of image data to a destination not intended by the use.
However, when the sensing result of the cover opening-closing sensor is not normal, inhibiting the use of the image forming apparatus without exception provides the following problem.
More specifically, a function of transmitting image data, such as a facsimile function, may cause an information leak as a result of transmission of the image data to a wrong destination, and hence it is desirable to inhibit the function from being used from the viewpoint of safety. Meanwhile, although a copying function may be executed in unintended setting the copy function is less in risk than the erroneous transmission of image data. Nevertheless, when the sensing result of the cover opening-closing sensor is not normal, inhibiting the facsimile function and the copy function from being used without exception reduces the usability more than necessary.
Originally, even though there is a key not related to opening-closing of the cover, e.g., a key in which the allocated function is not switched when the cover is opened or closed, inhibiting the entire apparatus from being used deteriorates the usability when the sensing result of the cover opening-closing sensor is not normal.